Winemaker Notes
A bright greenish golden yellow in color with a complex and profound nose of mineral, rich in sweet and enveloping fruit, yellow flowers and tropical notes. Fat in the mouth, sapid an mineral, with flint, cloves, ripe pear, and yellow peach. Dense, round and intense, the finish is distinct and persistent. A wine suitable for a long aging.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
The oldest vines in all of Soave: pre-phylloxera centurions, many nearly 140-years-old. The vinosity, sap, mineral undercurrent and sheer persuasiveness of the package, attests to this. A tour de force. Sure, there is the usual crew of stone fruits, ginger crystal, jasmine, frangipani and sea spray salinity. Yet there is also textural persuasion, all chew and chomp, amidst a bowl of scented orchard fruits flecked with botrytised high tones of mango skin. Drinkable now, but best from 2024.
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Wine Spectator
This finely meshed white offers poached apricot, pineapple and tangerine fruit flavors that are rich, juicy and enlivened by zesty milled white pepper and pink grapefruit peel notes, which work in tandem with the bright acidity to provide fine balance. Long and minerally, with tactile hints of almond skin and chalk playing on the finish. Drink now through 2028. 800 cases made, 100 cases imported.
One of Italy’s classic white varieties, Garganega flourishes in the rolling vineyards surrounding the medieval village of Soave and is the dominant variety in the wine from the region, aptly known as, Soave. By law it makes up 70-100% of the blend with the remainder traditionally finished off by Trebbiano di Soave for its crispness. Somm Secret—The best Soave wines, measurably elegant and vibrant, come from the Soave Classico zone, in the center of Soave, where the hills are made of decomposed volcanic and granitic soils.
Among Italy’s classic whites capable of great potential, Soave is named after the medieval village and surrounding hillsides from whence it comes. The original, historical Soave zone, delimited back in 1927, covers the eastern, volcanic hillsides of today's general Soave zone and is called Soave Classico.
Garganega, the indigenous grape responsible for great Soave, produces medium bodied white wines with fine acidity. Typical in the best Soaves are lively flowery and fresh herbal aromas and flavors such as orange zest, peach, melon and marjoram. The best can take some age and in so doing, develop notes of chamomile, marmalade and honey.
By the 1960s and 70s, Soave was enjoying such a glorious global reputation, that its demand forced growers to push beyond the zone's original borders. Expansion led west out of the hills and onto the alluvial plain of the Adige River. This, coupled with an increase in yields and allowance of additional varieties such as Trebbiano, Chardonnay and Pinot blanc, met demand but created a softer, fruit-forward, everyday Soave. Today the broader region can be the source of charming and value driven whites. But those labeled as Soave Classico or in rare cases, as Soave Colli Scaligeri (nearby hillside vineyards abutting the Classico zone), will be the best quality and age-worthy Soaves. These are often 100% Garganega.